'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of IndiaEden, Emily
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'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India
Eden, Emily
Eden, Emily, 1797-1869 -- Correspondence; India -- Description and travel
I passed him and his suite by the side of the road, drawn up according
to the strictest rule--a very large body of cocked hats. General R. in
front, alone, then a long row of general officers, then a longer row of
a lower grade. It was too awful and military a moment for speech. I was
not sure whether it was not irregular to kiss my hand; however, I
ventured on that little movement, which was received with a benign
'clignotement de l'oeil' signifying 'Wrong, but I forgive it for
once.'
I got in three-quarters of an hour before the rest, who came a foot's
pace, and General E. told F. they always marched that fashion--General
R. first, they behind--a trot never allowed.
General R. was uncommonly affable, and came and paid me a visit in my
tent, where I was lying down, all dust and fatigue, and wishing for
breakfast. Sir W. C., too, came in for a moment, in the highest glee,
not so fat as he was at Calcutta--we expected he would have been twice
the size. I told him he was grown thin, and he went back to his
favourite story of the courtiers telling George IV., when he was at his
fattest, 'Your Majesty is regaining your figure!'
We had a most interesting envoy from General A., who is employed by
Runjeet in Peshawur, and who wrote to each of us his polite French
regrets that he could not come here, but he sent 'un très petit paquet'
of the shawls we had commissioned him to get worked in Cashmere, when we
saw him in Calcutta, and also the Cashmere gowns he had promised. He
declared that there never were such failures; that he had sent seven or
eight 'surveillants' to Cashmere, 'mais on m'a tout gâté.'
An hour after, there arrived, instead of the 'petit paquet,' a very
large pillow, or rather a small ottoman, brought in by two men, and then
we had such cutting and nicking and tearing away of oilcloth and muslin
and shawl paper, and at last arrived at the treasures. Four shawl
dresses, four magnificent square shawls, and four long scarfs to match
the dresses--but the fineness and the brightness of the whole concern it
is impossible to describe. One gets to value shawls only by their
fineness at last, and we have seen nothing like these. They have been a
year and a half in making. We have ascertained the prices of these
shawls, which are very cheap considering their beauty. The dresses were
at Calcutta promised us as presents; but under the circumstances of our
being in Runjeet's country, and A. one of his generals, we want to pay
for them, which Captain E. has undertaken to do. I now say once more, as
I have often said before, I really don't want any more shawls, but yet I
do always when they come in my way.
In the afternoon Sir W. C., B., W., M., and two or three more, went on
elephants to compliment the Maharajah, and met half-way Kurruck Singh,
his son and supposed heir, Ajeet Singh, our Simla friend, and Sujeyt
Singh, the great _dandy_ of the Punjâb, with several others coming to
compliment G. The Maharajah had the best of the bargain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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